SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The Oak Park Black Film Festival is back in Sacramento for its fifth year, offering screenings and discussions at the Guild Theatre through Sunday.
The festival, held in a neighborhood tied to the story of Sacramento’s Black community, provides a platform for Black filmmakers from across the country and the world to showcase their work.
Attendees can watch feature films, documentaries, and short films, as well as meet directors, producers, and actors involved in the projects.
“It’s so important to share Black stories because everyone wants to see themselves in a story,” said Gloria Respress-Churchwell.
Respress-Churchwell is a director who came all the way from Boston to screen her film Limitless: The Dr. Chester Pierce Story.
It’s a documentary about the life of Dr. Chester Pierce. He was the first African American to play intercollegiate football against a white team in a former Confederate state while attending Harvard.
The film also explores his work as a psychiatrist that led him to Antarctica to carry out research, to NASA to help select astronauts, and to Sesame Street to help educate a new generation of preschoolers.
Panel discussions are also part of the event, giving everyone a chance to learn more about what it took to bring these projects to life. For the filmmakers, the festival also offers a space to share stories that often go untold.
“I think it’s important and incumbent upon ourselves to make space and room for each other to share our work,” said Ethan Lewis.
Lewis is the head of nonfiction and sports for Higher Ground, the production company owned by Barack and Michelle Obama.
On Wednesday, the first screening was their award-winning documentary “The Eyes of Ghana,” which follows 93-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, the former personal cameraman to Kwame Nkrumah, who was the first president of Ghana.
The festival runs through Sunday with tickets available online.
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